Road to Challenger Brands: Artsy Brings Democratization and Data to the Art Market

It’s been a little over a year since Everette Taylor joined online art marketplace Artsy as CMO. A few months into Taylor’s tenure, the world changed in ways most brands could not have prepared for. And yet, for all the sudden challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Artsy experienced a year of explosive growth. Since it started in 2009, Artsy has put more data at the fingertips of art buyers through the Art Genome Project, an evolving data analytics and search tool that predicts the next art purchase of its over 2 million—and growing—users. It's also democratized access to the world of fine art. Today, more than half of Artsy's visitors are outside the U.S., and these art enthusiasts can buy from a larger pool of artwork, given Artsy's partnership with more than 3,000 art galleries around the globe. Taylor spoke with Adweek ahead of his appearance at our Challenger Brands summit on Feb. 23 about how he steered the company’s marketing and communications strategy, and how he and Artsy are planning for the post-pandemic period. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Adweek: The pandemic left brands of all sizes and histories without a playbook in 2020. What were the unique challenges—and opportunities—that Artsy faced as a brand this past year? Everette Taylor: Artsy was such a novel idea when it was founded years ago. The whole idea of buying art online was so original. The company took a market that was very archaic and very not adaptable to the online digital world [and changed all the assumptions of who purchases art and how to do it]. 2020 hits and it's like rocket fuel. It was crazy to see the acceleration of what we were already doing starting to happen on a wider level, at a faster pace. Here's the thing: You have to be prepared for that. That's the biggest challenge. It's like, "Hey, we wanted this, this entire time." How do we capitalize on this? How do we make sure that our audience understands all of the advantages that Artsy has and all of our core value propositions? What did Artsy do last year in reaction to that moment of tremendous changes? 2020 was really a year of just making sure that we leaned into our core audience. We made sure they understood the value of Artsy. We stressed all the things that Artsy could provide to inspire people, to bring more art into their homes as they're spending more time inside. We saw that reflected in the numbers. As a brand, you're pushing this rock up a hill, trying to get traction, traction, traction. Then, there could be a moment that happens that completely changes the game for you. That’s what 2020 was. I think we took advantage of that. What has Artsy’s approach been in driving awareness and attracting new people to its community? When I think about funnels and the opportunities for marketing, I've always thought, “Have we been able to really maximize and optimize the opportunity that is there?” The art market is a $60 billion-plus market. There’s huge potential for Artsy to not only capture a large share of the current market, but also grow the market by increasing liquidity. And we will get there with our product road map, engineering expertise, vision and talent across the organization. We’re committed to unlocking this market’s full potential. There's obviously a lot of room to grow. It’s all about making sure that we're able to build products and have the marketing that appeals to that target audience. At the same time, it’s about continuing to inspire and expand the size of the market size. Are there any tech advancements Artsy is making now that you can talk about? I’m very excited by our data storytelling tools. When you go on Artsy and look at our pages, you can now see the auction results for free. These features have been behind paywalls for such a long time. We want to to help a user understand the difference between a good investment and a bad investment. The ability to help users make sure that they have the information and the data that they need as they're making these very expensive purchases is powerful. Our app allows users the ability to point their phone at their wall and visually show, using virtual reality, what that painting would look like in any spot. Think about that. You're just looking at the wall above your couch and you're trying to picture what this painting would look like. It's the unsexy stuff that really unlocks the potential our users are looking for. A lot of people love talking about brand, but it's lifecycle marketing—it's personalization. We give people a personalized experience and an algorithm that's literally helping you be your own personal art advisor. It helps you figure out what your tastes are. And that is the foundation of the great marketing organization we have. Road to Challenger Brands: How Bombas’ Product Expansion Roadmap Has Been Guided by Its Mission for Social Good